The Dragon's Sword
by Nestrik
Summary: What happens after Jen jumps off the cliff? (I had trouble with the chapters, so Xiyii is the head of the training camp. I couldn't find that chapter, so all you really need to know is that Shu Lien looks down from the bridge and sees Jen's face( before 6
1. Default Chapter

1 Chapter One  
  
The Dragon's Sword  
  
"Make a wish, Lo."  
  
"I wish…. That we were together again, in the desert."  
  
Goodbye, Lo, she thought. She wished she had the bravery to say it. I loved you, Lo, I did. I don't think I chased you because of my comb. There was something else…  
  
And I'm sorry I took a rock to your head. I was scared. I didn't know what I thought. I was scared to love you.  
  
She jumped.  
  
Lo, I love you. I love you so much I jumped off a mountain to make you happy.  
  
She fell through the mist that covered the top of Wudan Mountain, she, the governor's daughter, the lovely wife, the apprentice of evil, the hidden dragon.  
  
The mist brushed her face as she fell. Will I be falling forever, through the mist of the mountain?  
  
Her thoughts drifted to her teacher, the crouching tiger. Jade Fox. She was dead now.  
  
Li Mu Bai had killed her. Then Jade Fox killed him.  
  
Jade Fox was the reason she was now falling through the mists.  
  
She closed her eyes, and she thought of the beautiful sword, the Green Destiny, the thing that brought her to her ruin. 


	2. Mourning

1 Chapter Two  
  
Mourning  
  
Shu Lien knelt by the body of Li Mu Bai. It was his funeral, but not many people had come. It was only she.  
  
The Green Destiny was in her hands, the blade that had taken so much away. Including her love.  
  
Were they cowards for not telling each other of their feelings? It was too late when they finally had. Li Mu Bai had told her with his last few breaths.  
  
In her head, she cursed Jade Fox. She cursed Jen. She cursed Lo. She cursed Master Te. She cursed Li Mu Bai. She cursed everyone.  
  
Shu Lien was very confused. Li Mu Bai was dead. Master Te did not want the Green Destiny back. Lo and Jen were at Wudan Mountain. Mrs. Wu was at the warehouse in Peking. And she was here, alone, with the body of Li Mu Bai. Where was she to go?  
  
Shu Lien sighed. There was only one place for her to go. That was Wudan Mountain. She would give the Green Destiny to the only person alive who was willing to wield it.  
  
Jen.  
  
Shu Lien kissed her fingers, and placed her hand on Li Mu Bai's face. She left the room and told the gracediggers that Li Mu Bai was ready to be buried.  
  
She then went to Peking, and told Mrs. Wu that she was going to Wudan Mountain. 


	3. Lo's Distress

Chapter Three  
  
Lo's Distress  
  
Jen had disappeared from sight. Lo was angry. All he could do was watch Jen die.  
  
He cursed himself. He had told her the story of the boy who jumped from the mountain and had floated away. He had just thought it was a fairy tale. He didn't know Jen believed it.  
  
And now he had lost her to the mountain.  
  
Lo held her comb in his hand, the comb that had changed his life, and hers, the comb that she had almost killed him to get.  
  
He wanted to know how they ended up falling in love.  
  
  
  
He threw the comb over the bridge. Let it smash on the rocks. It was nothing now.  
  
Lo stepped up onto the banister and looked down into the mists. He closed his eyes.  
  
'I'm coming, Jen," he said.  
  
He leaned forward.  
  
"Lo! No, Lo! Stop! Lo!"  
  
He teetered on the edge of existence, and then fell back onto the stone of the bridge. Shu Lien stood over him, a look of concern on her face.  
  
"Lo! Where is Jen? I must find her."  
  
Lo exploded.  
  
"You want to find her? Then throw yourself off the cliff, and if you're lucky you might find what's left of her! She threw herself off the cliff! SHE DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE!"  
  
With that he collapsed into Shu Lien's arms, and cried until he fell asleep, like a child in his mother's arms. 


	4. Day of the Dragon

Chapter Four  
  
Day of the Dragon  
  
Li Mu Bai was dead. Jen was dead. Lo and Shu Lien were in sorrow. Mount Wudan had seemed to lose all of its beauty.  
  
Shu Lien knew that if she had not been there, Lo would have jumped after Jen.  
  
What would they do?  
  
Not knowing things made Shu Lien very angry. She was a very organized person. As head of a security company, she had to be. It wasn't like she had much of a choice.  
  
Lo, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter. He was s desert warrior. He didn't know what organized was.  
  
But Shu Lien had to think, and think hard. Both of them had lost very important people. Lo would never get over Jen, Shu Lien knew.  
  
Shu Lien felt useless. What could she do?  
  
Then the answer came to her, like a bolt of lightning in a clear summer sky. Jen had been a great fighter. She was almost beaten by Lo, but a few crafty tricks on Jen's part had given her slight victory, and she celebrated that by running away, but always getting caught. Jen and Lo were the same.  
  
She would train Lo to become the warrior that Jen could never be, as a tribute to both their memories. Li Mu Bai would have the apprentice of his dreams.  
  
But Shu Lien would train him. She knew Li Mu Bai's way of thinking. She knew exactly what to do.  
  
Now her only problem was convincing Lo.  
  
Oh, Li Mu Bai, why did you leave me? Just when I needed you most, you left me. Just when Jen needed you the most. Why?  
  
Because mortal life was short, and Shu Lien could not dwell on lives lost forever.  
  
"Lo."  
  
Lo raised his head to look at her. He expected to see some sort of stern face because he had let Jen die. But all he saw was kindness.  
  
"I will train you in Wudan Mountain."  
  
His eyes narrowed in thought.  
  
"As a tribute to Jen's memory. She would have wanted it. You were the perfect match for her in more than one way." Shu Lien smiled.  
  
"I will not do it for Jen alone," said Lo. "I will do it because you ask me to, and because Li Mu Bai wanted Jen trained as a student. But I do not know the first thing about fighting."  
  
Shu Lien looked him hard in the eye. Then she reached into the pack on her back.  
  
She drew out a sword.  
  
The Green Destiny.  
  
"This," said Shu Lien, "will be your true master."  
  
Lo took the sword.  
  
"It will also be your greatest enemy. Be wise, Lo. You have much to learn."  
  
  
  
Disclaimer- No one belongs to me, everyone belongs to Ang Lee.  
  
A/N- Chapter 5 coming soon! 


	5. The Beggining

Chapter Five  
  
The Beginning  
  
Lo held the Green Destiny in his hands. The blade was carved with a strange curved design, a design he had never seen before. He had wandered the deserts of China and explored caves covered with drawings, but he had never encountered anything like this before. It was breathtaking. The sheer light metal of it was enough to make you stop in your tracks. It seemed almost to float in his hands, like some supernatural thing he had only heard about in legends.  
  
Shu Lien looked at him, and his handling of the sword. He drew it out of its sheath, and ran his fingers along the blade. Shu Lien gasped. The gesture was so like something Jen would have done- in fact, she had. Shu Lien remembered.  
  
They were fighting in the warehouse, after Jen had come to her for clothes. She had run her fingers along the blade, checking for scratches. Stop! Shu Lien had said, but to no avail. Jen had a mind of her own.  
  
Or she had had a mind of her own.  
  
Shu Lien shook her head, as if to clear it of these sad thoughts.  
  
Lo spoke. "It's so…"  
  
"Beautiful?"  
  
"I would think that is the closest word to describe it, but is seems so light. It fells like it could break in my hands, yet it has killed many people. How can that be?"  
  
Shu Lien shrugged. "The makers of the sword were unknown. The sword was found in the desert, sticking out of the sand. When the farmer who discovered the sword dug beneath it, he found bodies. There had been some sort of battle there."  
  
"What will I learn first?"  
  
"You will learn to meditate. Every warrior needs to learn how to do that before anything else. Without meditation, you cannot let go of your soul. Without letting go of your soul, you cannot let it float free into other words. Without that, you would not be enlightened. Without enlightenment, to some degree, you cannot tap into the powers to defy gravity."  
  
Shu Lien stopped here. She had remembered something, something that Li Mu Bai had said, that day he returned from Wudan Mountain and had come to Peking.  
  
Place…white…. terrible sadness… "Had you been enlightened?" Snatches of that conversation came back to Shu Lien.  
  
The place where Li Mu Bai had reached terrible sadness, but not enlightenment. Lo would be able to reach it, Shu Lien was sure. He had been through the same sort of troubles Li Mu Bai had been through. Lo had wandered most of his life in the desert, Li Mu Bai had lost his master to Jade Fox.  
  
Then something else came back to Shu Lien.  
  
She was having tea with Jen and Jen's mother. Shu Lien had tested Jen's reflexes. They had been amazingly fast.  
  
Shu Lien remembered looking into Jen's eyes. She saw terrible sadness there. Shu Lien had always assumed that it was from being corrupted by Jade Fox, but no one, not even Jade Fox, could cause that look in someone's eye.  
  
Then something clicked.  
  
Jen had gone there. The place where Li Mu Bai had gone. Both were so similar in their fighting style. Shu Lien remembered Jade Fox's last words.  
  
"She made amazing progress, but I remained the same."  
  
Jen and Li Mu Bai had gone to the place of light. Something lay beneath that sadness.  
  
Shu Lien looked at the Green Destiny. The silver design glinted up at her, throwing light into her eyes.  
  
  
  
A/N- I took the dialogue from the movie by memory, so I know the words aren't perfect. 


	6. Reaching Out

Chapter Six  
  
Reaching Out  
  
Shu Lien puzzled over these mysteries of the light, and of the darkness. Could the sword have some tie-in with the place Li had gone?  
  
Did it have something to do with Jen?  
  
Shu Lien's head spun. She didn't know what to think. She didn't even know if Lo could reach the place Li spoke of.  
  
Why can't YOU go into the light, Shu Lien?  
  
Li's voice rang out in her head, as clear as if he was still alive and standing right behind her.  
  
Shu Lien decided. She would try to go. If she could not, she would train Lo to do so.  
  
~*~  
  
Shu Lien sat outside one of the vast buildings that Wudan Mountain supported. She sat on a bamboo mat suspended a few feet above the ground. It was used for meditation, as well as practicing to defy gravity. Lo sat before her.  
  
"You must concentrate," she told Lo. "Try and look inside yourself, into your deepest emotions. If you have done this correctly, you will experience a strange feeling, as if you are soaring. Here you fly, thinking, blocking out all other sounds, concentrating on your past, your present, and what you shall do in the future. You can look as far ahead as the hour you die, or as short ahead as how you will execute the next move of your sword. As you progress, you will be able to go through this process in a split second, while you are fighting or even hunting. You must concentrate on every detail, like how hard your foot will land on that rock or how fast your fist should move."  
  
Lo closed his eyes. Shu Lien closed hers.  
  
  
  
Jen sat on the mat in the hideout of Jade Fox. She could hear the rain trickling in through the roof. She was fourteen years old. Jade Fox had told her to meditate.  
  
"You must concentrate, Jen," hissed Jade. "You must meditate, you silly little girl. Hurry! We do not have much time, girl! You take forever!"  
  
"Perhaps if you could leave me alone to concentrate," said Jen. Choosing her words carefully, "then I could meditate faster. And you never told me what I should be looking for."  
  
Jade Fox walked around, hissing. "You will feel a great darkness, and you shall feel like you are falling. If you feel like you are flying, Jen, you have reached the place of goodness, where people meditate on the smart thing to do."  
  
"But I want to do smart things."  
  
"Fool! Don't you see? We need to fight against them, idiot! We need to be the OPPOSITE!"  
  
Jen closed her eyes and meditated. She felt like she was flying. No matter how hard she tried, she could not reach the place of falling.  
  
Jen concentrated, and suddenly a bright light surrounded her.  
  
  
  
Shu Lien was jolted out of meditation. She felt lost, as if she had just fallen out of the clouds. All she could remember was the light, the sadness.  
  
And the feeling that Jen had been standing right beside her.  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N- Nice ending, hmm? I like to leave my audience in suspense.  
  
Disclaimer- Same as always. 


	7. Xiyii

Chapter Eight  
  
Xiyii  
  
"This is Lo, sir," said Shu Lien, curtseying.  
  
A man sat in a richly furnished room, on a beautiful chair carved of dark wood. Tapestries covered the walls. On tables around the room lay swords, machetes, and other weapons.  
  
The man was the head of the Wudan Mountain Training Facility. Under him were countless masters and students. He had to approve the apprentice before serious training began.  
  
Xiyii had given himself his name. It was a foreign language that no one knew but Xiyii. Some people said that he had made it up himself, and that he was a bit strange in the head. But according to Xiyii, his mane meant Great Warrior of the Mountain, but even Li had not fully believed him.  
  
Xiyii looked Lo up and down. Shu Lien knew that Xiyii was checking Lo's body posture, his build, his hands, his eyes, and the degree of braveness and foolishness that showed. Shu Lien remembered when she had been in this very room, looked up and down by Xinyii (then called Shan Mylan).  
  
Xiyii sighed, and then said, "Fine, daughter Lien. You may train him. He is a strong spirit, yes."  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Shu Lien walked about alone. She went to the bridge, where Lo had watched Jen fall.  
  
She looked down.  
  
Jen stared back up at her.  
  
  
  
A/N- :^D Once again, a beautiful ending that leaves me with no idea what to do next 


	8. Ghost Voices

Chapter Eight  
  
Ghost Voices  
  
Lo stood on the grass in the mist and fog of the early morning of the mountain. Make yourself one with the mountain, he told himself. Meditate.  
  
He drew the Green Destiny out of its sheath. The silver design glimmered in the faint light. He practiced moving it through the air, slashing unseen foes.  
  
Suddenly Lo felt a terrible pain. He missed Jen with all of his heart.  
  
Then suddenly white mist enveloped him. This was not early morning fog- it was thick and gray. It surrounded him and suddenly he felt himself rising.  
  
Lo, a voice said.  
  
Lo tried to look through the mist, but could see no one.  
  
Lo, the voice repeated. It was strangely light and airy, and-  
  
Lo gasped.  
  
It was Jen.  
  
"Jen!" he called out.  
  
And this is what he heard.  
  
Lo, Lo, you must not follow me.  
  
"Why?" he cried out.  
  
It was my time.  
  
"But my time is with you!"  
  
No. Can you not see, Lo?  
  
"I can only see mist, fog, and my want to see you."  
  
No, Lo. I had to die. It was my choice to die, you see. It was not yours. You remember the story you told me of the little boy that jumped off the mountain. I wanted you to be happy.  
  
"How could I be happy if I was not with you?" cried Lo.  
  
  
  
You are happy, Lo. Think  
  
Lo thought. He thought of his life before Jen. He thought of his life with Jen. He thought of his life after Jen.  
  
Before Jen, he had been a bandit.  
  
With Jen, he had been a kidnapper.  
  
After Jen, he was a warrior, trained in the greatest craft the East could offer.  
  
"But Jen," he said, "I still want you here."  
  
I am here.  
  
"But you are not here, standing with me!" said Lo.  
  
I am here.  
  
A wind blew beside him, like a whisper of the life that Jen had once been.  
  
"Who are you?' Lo whispered.  
  
I am the hidden desert dragon of the mountains and cities.  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
I am hidden. You shall only find me when you look, when you really want me here with you.  
  
"But on the day you died, I wanted you!" yelled Lo.  
  
You did not miss me yet, Lo. I can only come when you need me.  
  
"I need you."  
  
  
  
I think Shu Lien needs me more.  
  
"But.." whispered Lo.  
  
She has many things to figure out. I was her sister. It was time I acted like one.  
  
  
  
Then the breeze stopped, the fog was gone, and Lo stood on the grassy slope of the mountain.  
  
The Green Destiny was gone.  
  
"Goodbye," he whispered, as a tear slid down his cheek.  
  
  
  
  
  
Disclaimer- Only Xinyii belongs to me.  
  
A/N- THIS IS NOT THE END!!!! 


	9. The Place of Sadness

Chapter Nine  
  
The Place of Sadness  
  
Shu Lien stared down into the water. Jen was there.  
  
She held out her hand. Shu Lien, she said. My only sister.  
  
"Who are you…WHAT are you… you are dead…." Shu Lien stammered. Jen is dead, she told herself. Jen is dead.  
  
But Jen was right before her eyes.  
  
Shu Lien, it said. I found Li.  
  
"You found…. Li?" Shu Lien asked.  
  
I know where he is.  
  
"Jen, this is sick. You are dead. Li is dead. And I am stuck in the middle having hallucinations. This isn't fair." She started to walk away.  
  
You don't know a thing.  
  
Shu Lien looked back. Jen was standing on the bridge, looking as solid as any human.  
  
I know where Lu Mu Bai went. You don't want to know?  
  
Shu Lien stared.  
  
We are the same. Li Mu Bai and I are in the same place. The place where souls wait for their loved ones, before going on to whatever lies beyond.  
  
"How did Li go there and not be…" Shu Lien stumbled for words. "Dead?"  
  
He was told he was going to die. When he meditated. People who go there know that within some time or so, they shall die. It is a foreshadowing.  
  
"Jen."  
  
I must go, sister. Someday you shall understand. But I need the Green Destiny. I need to give it to Li. It is my fault he died. He deserves the sword.  
  
Jen dissolved before her very eyes.  
  
"Goodbye," said Shu Lien.  
  
Disclaimer- See Chapter Eight.  
  
A/N- I know it's weird, but can you ever not be weird with Crouching Tiger?  
  
A/N/N- I don't believe in ghosts or anything like that. It's just for the story. 


	10. Goodbye

Chapter Ten  
  
Goodbye  
  
The Green Destiny was gone.  
  
Lo went to the bridge. He was not surprised to see Shu Lien standing there.  
  
They looked at each other, deep into their eyes. They were like sister and brother.  
  
They both knew what had happened, without even speaking.  
  
They did not understand.  
  
Jen was gone. She would remain gone for the rest of the time Shu Lien and Lo were alive.  
  
Li Mu Bai occasionally appeared to Shu Lien in her dreams. She would always wake up crying his name, but then would drop back to sleep, not sure if she had just dreamt it or if he had really been there.  
  
Lo was trained by Shu Lien. He was one of the finest warriors to emerge from that place, and was given Xiyii's coveted place. Under his control, more warriors emerged that ever before under a single person. He never married. He died of old age, in his seat at the hall in Wudan Mountain. He never saw the desert again.  
  
Shu Lien, after completing Lo's training, was engaged to Xiyii's son Xantiyi. However, the day before they were going to get married, Xantiyi was killed by Purple Yin Poison. The poison was meant for Shu Lien, left, most likely, from one of Jade Fox's many apprentices.  
  
Shu Lien herself died of poison, but it was accidental.  
  
Now all that are left of Li Mu Bai, Jen, Shu Lien, Lo, and Jade Fox is a legend in China of warriors whose horses could fly and whose mouths could shoot fire. The Tall Tales of China.  
  
And the local legend in Peking, of a sword that existed for thousands of years, and killed many. It was decorated with an ancient design, and it had been used by the mysterious Hidden Dragon whose spirit was said to haunt Wudan Mountain.  
  
THE END 


	11. Acknowledgements and Messages

1 Acknowledgements and Messages  
  
  
  
*I hoped you loved this story as much as I loved writing it. I think the movie really is mysterious, and I enjoyed using the characters to write this. I do not believe in ghosts or the white place that was often mentioned in this story, but they gave the story an element it needed, at least, imho.  
  
*I'd like to thank my sister Cassie (The Queen of the Fairies, yes, I am her twin,) Alex (Xela Lupe), Amber (AmBLONDE) Rachel (Rachelle Lily) and of course ANG LEE AND YO-YO MA for their inspiration.  
  
Oh, and any one else I forgot to thank. See you next time!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
KIRSTEN624 


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